Passenger vehicles, especially combined passenger and utility type vehicles, commonly have front and rear seats that both recline and fold forwardly to a substantially horizontally disposed forwardly dumped position, as selected by a user, in order to accommodate increasing demand for more functional vehicle interiors. Placing a vehicle seat in its forwardly folded dumped position allows for carrying of large or lengthy objects inside the vehicle and provides a convenient substantially horizontal flat surface for articles that might be used in a vehicle, such as briefcases, laptop computers, and also food and drinks.
Various prior art vehicle seats exist, which vehicle seats fold forwardly to a substantially horizontally disposed forwardly dumped position. Such vehicle seats typically include a pair of vehicle seat hinges, with each hinge having a mounting plate securely attached to a vehicle seat cushion. A sector plate associated with the seatback is pivotally mounted on the mounting plate for pivotal movement about a lower pivot axis. A rotational control plate is pivotally mounted on the sector plate for pivotal movement about an upper pivot axis and is securely attached to a vehicle seatback.
In such prior art vehicle seats, the seatback is selectively pivotally movable about the lower pivot axis between a plurality of angular positions, typically including a plurality of reclining positions and also a plurality of partially forwardly (of vertical) inclined positions. The seatback is also forwardly foldable about the upper pivot axis between a design position and a forwardly dumped position, whereat the rear surface of the seatback is substantially horizontally disposed.
In the prior art, in order to permit selection and control of the reclining and forward folding of the vehicle seatback about two substantially parallel pivot axes, one or more manually manipulable handle release mechanisms are used.
One single release mechanism for this purpose is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,748 (Fourrey et al). As taught therein, when the seatback is in a rearwardly reclined position, a pawl mechanism locks out a portion of the seatback pivot mechanism, thus precluding forward dumping of the seatback over the seat cushion. When the seatback is in an upright design position, in order to forwardly fold the seatback over the seat cushion, a single manually actuatable lever arm is lifted, thus immediately and concurrently releasing the seatback for rotation, either forwardly about both the lower and upper pivot axes, or for reclining about the lower pivot axis. Such immediate and concurrent releasing is highly undesirable, as it precludes separate control of the reclining function.
Another such release mechanism is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,779 (Suzuki), wherein a conventional release mechanism is used to selectively release a seatback for reclining or initial forward folding with respect to a vehicle seat cushion. After initial forward folding of the seatback, an isolated pin on the the seat cushion is engaged by a separate latch rotatably mounted on the seatback.
In both of these prior art patents, there is no direct link or connection between the seat cushion and the upper pivot axis of the seatback, which is highly undesirable. Further, it is necessary to perform initial forwardly folded movement of the seatback forwardly of the design position in order to permit the seatback to be moved to the fully forwardly dumped position.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a single control handle release mechanism for use with a vehicle seat hinge, which release mechanism is actuatable through manual manipulation of single control handle.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a single control handle release mechanism for use with a vehicle seat hinge, which release mechanism is actuatable through manual manipulation of a single control handle without requiring significant initial forward folding of the seatback, forward of the design position.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a single control handle release mechanism for use with a vehicle seat hinge, which release mechanism is simple and inexpensive to manufacture.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a single control handle release mechanism for use with a vehicle seat hinge, which release mechanism is intuitive to operate.